Ten

Yesterday (Saturday 31st) was another shortish march of 11 miles to this place, Arendu, the last village up this valley, but a toughish one over debris slopes, moraine and sandy flats.
Arundu is situated on a moraine, terraced and cultivated, but no trees. It is a compact village, houses all together.
We entered a street, or alley rather, about 4 feet wide, walls of large pebbles on each side.
After going a few yards, we were taken up a ladder to the flat roof, a roof which extended over the whole village - except for the alleyways. On the roof was a sort of second storey the walls of which were simply made of woven willow branches and withers, and with the exception of one or two separate rooms, the roof of these rooms also stretched over a whole block.
We climbed a ladder to the roof of this wicker-work storey, and walked straight off it on to the ground which, at the back of the village, rises to that level.
Close by was a building called a fort, but I should not have guessed it.
Our camp is in a little field a little above the village.
Just above us, in the mouth of a nullah, down which flows a glacier which ends within half a mile of our tents. It is about 4 miles long, and descends from a 20,000 ft peak. Our height here is about 9700 feet.
A straight spur of this peak crosses the nullah at the top, and is covered by the purest white domes, folds, wrinkled, slopes and precipices of glistening, frozen snow - a lovely sight.
Half a mile up the main valley is the snout of the great the Chogo Longma glacier about 30 miles long and ¾ mile wide.. The terminal ice cliff, from 50 to 100 feet high, stands right across the valley. The river rushes out from beneath it. The natives say that the glacier is advancing very rapidly.
Just opposite to us on the further side of the glacier is the entrance to a very narrow gorge, up which we have to go the Nushik Pass.
An old man here is coming up to act as guide - so far as he can. He was one of the party that 30 years ago crossed the pass to go to Nagar to take a ransom for some Kashmiri soldiers who had been captured by the natives there.
We are taking 30 coolies with us from here, having brought 2 or 3 good men along from villages further back. They are carrying food for 8 days.
Our friend the Wazir produced today some very fine grapes and melons which he had brought from Shigar for us. He has also brought some goats along so we shall have milk. Some men have also been sent on ahead to repair the road a bit.

Arandu, Baltsistan.
Sunday 8th Sept 1895

My Dear Albert,
You will have heard one way or another that we have had to retrace our steps.
I am sorry that I shall not be able to give you any description of Hunza and Nagar and of the sites of the deeds of valour performed in those parts.
Anyhow, I will give you an account of our attempt on the Nushik La.
On Monday morning last, September 2nd, we turned out at 6.15, but as the collies were making their final arrangements, and we had to arrange light loads, it was 8.30 before we got started.
As I have said, the Chogo Longma (glacier) ends about ½ a mile up the valley from the village.
We first made our way down to the river, followed along it a little way, and then went up the hill side on our left and so reached the top of the south edge of the glacier.
Here we found the advanced party of our men waiting for the rest to come up.
While waiting, the indefatigable Gustaveson improved the occasion by preaching to the coolies.
Our party consisted of, beside Neve and myself and one cook, the Wazir of Shigar, who had arranged the whole bundabast, a guide - an old man who had been across the pass 30 years ago - 5 shikaris, who carried native ice axes, 13 coolies for our own kit and 16 for the Wazir and for carrying extra blankets and food, the Wazir’s gun carrier, a herd of 17 sheep and goats.
When all the men went up, Gustaveson bid no adieu and returned to Arandu, while we 41 humans and 17 beasts started across the glacier towards the narrow entrance to the Kero Longma nullah on the further side.

Take the Atlantic with a big cross sea on it, freeze it and cover it over with stones and dirt, and you might have some idea of the surface of this glacier.
We crossed it in half an hour, and then waited for the collies to catch up.
This Chogo Longma has never been explored, but it must be 25 or 30 miles long. It was from ½ to ¾ mile wide where we crossed.
For several miles the nullah up which we went is very narrow. The sides being on the further side precipitous rocks and on our steep debris slopes, the rocks and the slopes falling straight into the stream, which rushes down over stones and between boulders of enormous size.
The path we followed along the debris slopes was of the roughest description.
At 12.30, having come only 5 miles, we halted for breakfast, and marched on till we came to where the nullah widened a little, where was a grove of birches and willows and rose bushes. Here we waited a long time for the coolies.
Just here a glacier protrudes from a side ravine on the left, and blocked up the main nullah, the stream tunnelling right through it.
On either side of the glacier were moraines of debris about 100 feet high. We climbed up the moraine and crossed the glacier and descended the other side to a spot called Domok (“Ding Bransá” according to Neve’s account), where are a number of circular sleeping shelters and some birch trees, amongst which we camped.
This place is 11000 feet above sea level. We had come only 8 miles from Arundu - 8 hours march for coolies.
Before night, 14 more coolies came in from villages below Arundu to take the place of some Arundu men, so we were a party of 56 in camp that night
It was rather a weird sight, the groups of long-haired, wild-looking Baltis sitting around their various camp fires amongst the birch trees.

Eleven

Next morning (Tuesday 3rd) we turned out at 5.45, and got under way at 6.30.
From here the valley began to widen out.
We first crossed a grassy meadow, then moraine, and at 5½ miles reached the snout of the Kero Glacier which, with other side glaciers which come down from nullahs on both sides, fills the valley right across.
The snow peaks about the Nushik La now began to come into sight.
There was a certain amount of vegetation on the lower slopes of the mountain, and showed a certain amount of autumn colouring.
It rained while we were having breakfast, and later on in the morning it rained hard.
The first side glacier came down a nullah up on the right, and pushing right across, was heaped up on our side. We went up the slopes on our left to get beyond it.
The nullah, a broad one, down which it came was flanked on the south side by a range of very jagged mountains, as all are about here.
The second one coming from the left we had to cross, taking about 20 minutes. The stream had tunnelled through both of them.
The sun, shining through the mountain peaks, lit up the crests of the ice falls on the glacier further up the nullah - a fine sight.
The main Kero glacier, we found, reached this point and joined the one we crossed. We saw a herd of ibex on the heights above us and also saw tracks of bears.
We kept on another 2 miles along the moraine and camped at 2 o’clock.
The march was only 7 miles, and the coolies took 7 hours.
There was a small tarn close by in which Neve bathed. I thought the weather too cold for such indulgence, our height being now over 14,000ft. (Neve reported: “In the afternoon we bathed in a little tarn beside the glacier, but found it bitterly cold. There was a slight snow shower...”). Next morning (Wednesday) we found the tent was frozen, so waited till the sun was up before we took it down. We had let the coolies have the outer fly for extra shelter.
We left a few men here at Kulcha Branza with supplies to form a base camp in case we were delayed on the pass, and took on with us 12 coolies for our things, 3 for the Wazir, and 12 with firewood, blankets and food the for the coolies, besides the old guide and the 5 shikaris.
The guide took us onto the Kero Glacier and led across diagonally 3½ miles - in 2½ hours.
The first mile was over moraine, very rough going, then a level stretch over loose stones, and then a stretch of more-or-less naked ice. There were a few crevasses, but easily crossed.
Half a mile or so along moraine on the further side of the Kero brought us at 11 o’clock to a camping place “Ding Branza" at the foot of a spur between the Kero and a glacier coming from the right. There were some old stone shelters here, out of one of which a red bear bolted on our approach. Here we halted an hour for breakfast. (We were now at the east corner of a semicircle of mountains with peaks of 19,000ft or so from which 7 glaciers descend, forming the Kero Longma, the 3rd on our right coming down from Nushik La.
To reach our next camping place, about 2 miles of glacier had to be crossed, and in the 1st mile, a good many crevasses ran at right angles to our track, which entailed a good deal of going to and fro to get round or over them. There being no snow, there was no danger of falling in, but some places we crossed were rather nasty, the crevasses being very deep. The walls were a lovely transparent blue, and great icicles hung down where the sides overhung.
Our pace was slow as our guide was an old man - couldn’t get along very fast. Neve said his guiding was good.
I went ahead to get a photo of the party crossing the glacier, but couldn’t manage it. Instead I took one of the ice fall of the glacier coming from the Nushik where it drops suddenly into the main glacier.
Reaching the spur between the 2nd glacier and the Nushik one, we climbed up about 200 feet and found a flatish place, which had evidently been used as a camping place before as there were the remains of some old stone shelters. It had a name
- Stiatbu Branza - and its height was about 16,000 ft. With some levelling work, we just made enough room for our tents.

The view from here was splendid.
The lower part of the Kero Valley is enclosed on the West side by a range of rocky peaks of extraordinary sharpness, the strata being nearly vertical. Above them far down (beyond Arundu) rose the snow-clad Ganchen. Close round us 7 glaciers came down, and met in a confused mass of ice, from between a semi-circular range of snow peaks.
We got dinner at 6.45, but the height affected me somewhat so I wasn’t able to make much of it and felt a bit sick, with headache, but my troubles were forgotten in sleep.
The coolies were very busy all evening preparing paboo boots and gloves (soft leather goatskin with hair inside) for the morrow.
We slept on the ground tonight to save time in the morning.
The view, when the moon rose lighting up the snows was wonderful.

Twelve

Thursday 5th September. Turned out at 5.45 when we heard the coolies beginning to move. Got packed, had choti hazir, and started at 6.45. I had a pair of paboo boots. All the men were wearing them, as well as big gloves, and muffled up in blankets, the party had a very Arctic appearance.
The glacier leading up to the pass is about ¼ mile wide, but where it enters the main glacier, it is much narrower, and as I said, forms a very broken ice fall, where George Bruce and the others of Sir Martin Coney’s expedition got into difficulties.
These we avoided by keeping up the spur and getting on to the level glacier (or nevé) above the ice fall.
The Wazir, who had discussed matters a good deal with Neve on the way from Arundu, came a little way and then said goodbye to return to Shigar. I thought he would never have done making his salaams. A sturdy, strong. bearded man who had made himself very helpful and pleasant.
Our party now consisted of the 5 shikaris, the old guide man, 12 coolies with loads and 12 others with light loads to assist generally.
As the glacier was covered with snow and there were a few narrow crevasses, the guide led with a rope round him for safety, the rest following in single file.
After marching an hour up several gentle rises, at 7.50 we suddenly reached the top of the pass and the edge of an ice cornice 10 or 12 feet high which extended right across the valley, terminated on the left by a precipitous rocky ridge, but on the right extending up the top of a spur which came down at right angles to the valley we were in.
Below the cornice was a very steep ice slope, covered with fresh snow, which ended in a precipice and ice fall forming the head of the Nashik glacier.
The view from the pass was magnificent. Looking north, as we were, the Nushik Glacier was seen to be bounded on the left by a long precipitous ridge of rocks some 600 feet in height, and on the right by steep slopes of snow and ice fall. It flowed from below us 5 or 6 miles to its junction with the Great Hispar Glacier. At the junction is a camping place called Haigatum (Neve refers to a Haigutum Glacier) where, all going well, we hoped to have reached this night.
Beyond the Hispar rose a long range of great peaks - the main range of the Karkarum - one peak being over 24,000 feet and another over 25,000 ft (or a vertical height of 12,000 above the Hispar). Frequently during the day we heard the long thundering of avalanches from these peaks, though distant.
The question was how to get through the cornice and on to the slopes which was not too dangerous.
We followed the cornice up the spur to the right a little way to some rocks which protruded from the snow, and a little back from the cornice. Here again were signs of old shelters, and some remains of fires and two or three sort of wooden ice axes.
When all the coolies had arrived, most of them suffering more or less with headaches - we were now at about 17000 feet - the shikaris went further up the spur to find a possible route. Neve followed them, but they did not go very far, and I saw them working at the cornice about 200 feet higher up. I went up to see what was doing. There was a crack in the nevé (frozen snow) which extended right through the cornice, so here Neve had made the shikaris widen it out, making a tunnel through the cornice to the slope beyond. A rope had been passed down through the tunnel and a man was at work at the other end of it, cutting a path on the snow slope. Never said they would be working there about 2 hours, so I went down to take some photos.
About 12 o’clock a man began shouting from above, and as all the coolies began going up without their loads, I thought there was something up, and followed.
On reaching the tunnel, I found that Neve was down on the slope somewhere. The shikaris indicated that he wanted me to follow. Had I known that the road was ready, I would have put on my nailed boots, but as it was, I had on the paboos, and beastly slippery things they were.
Descending through the hole, I found it led onto a very steep ice slope, covered with 2 or 3 inches of fresh snow. The slope appeared to end some 200 feet below in a precipice. The shikaris had cut a path in the ice almost 15 yards horizontally. Beyond that, the snow was rather thicker, and the slope eased off a little lower down, before reaching the precipice, and the shikaris had made footholds diagonally down, then a bit straight down, then diagonally again to a spot about 50 yards away where Neve was holding the end of the rope. He told me to let the rope pass through my belt, which I did, and it would have been a good arrangement as I had both hands free for my khud stick, but the rope would not slip through easily. So after going a few steps, a shikari holding on to me from behind, I took the belt from my belt and let it slide through my left hand and under my arm. This was not a good plan at all, as I had only one hand for my stick, and the rope tended to pull me outwards from the slope. The men holding me behind also did not assist my balance.
As soon as I got off the ice path to the thicker snow, by leaning too much to the slope, the snow began to give downwards, and I came down on my side, and should have slipped away down if the shikari hadn’t got tight hold of my coat. Neve had the end of the rope all right, and I should not have gone far provided I kept hold of the rope.
I waited where I was till a shikari came up from where Neve was and helped me down by planting his axe at each step for me. The baboo boots the men had were thicker and of rougher leather than mine, so not so liable to slip. Mine were as smooth as socks.
As soon as I reached Neve, I planted myself comfortably and held the rope passed round my body, while Neve went back to get the coolies through.

Thirteen

He had some difficulty in getting the shikaris to cut the path, and it was only by his being able to get about on the slope safely with ice claws on his boots that he kept them at the work. Our other pair of claws had been stolen at Arundu, but I could not have worn them as they were too small for my boots.
Our Khansamah (cook) was the next to come down. I was rather nervous about him, as he is of a timid nature and not used to mountains, and on the march had had to be helped at very easy places, Down rocks etc. However, a shikari brought him safely down to where I was.
It was a very slow job getting the coolies down. Neve had great trouble with them, 12 of them refusing to come further, and were sent back.
Of the rest, one man came down with a small load, the rest, with or without loads, were helped down by the shikaris. The heavier loads, the shikaris brought down themselves.
When the rope wasn’t wanted any more, I was starting to go on down the slope - now not so steep - but the shikaris would not let me till another man came up to help me, I holding on to his girdle. He slipped and I had to hold him up.
The reason they were so careful about me was because had anything happened to either Neve or me they would have been punished - so they told me afterwards..
It was two hours between the time that the first man came through the tunnel and when we were all together again at the bottom of the steep slope, 200 feet or so below the cornice.
Before staring on again, we had a tope out to which the old guide, 2 shikaris and I linked, and soon after, as evidently there were crevasses about, the other 3 shikaris linked onto us, and Neve made the coolies rope together in two parties.
There was first a flat bit of going, then a descent of 200 feet then an easy slope. We were going parallel to the direction of the valley, having ice precipices and ice falls on our left above the glacier which was several hundred feet below us, and on our right, snow-covered ice slopes.
Before we had got a mile from the top of the pass and had come down about 600 feet, the bergshrund (“yawning” wrote Neve, “15 to 30 feet wide”) closed round in front of us.
Neve and the shikaris then went on to reconnoitre, going a short way to the right, where there was an ice fall, and then the right, where there was another. Then came to a crevasse which was still bridged by snow. Neve was roped and tried to cross, but the bridge gave way. Beyond the crevasse, the slopes down to the main glacier were nothing but ice falls and crevasses, and looked hopeless.